Bilateral labor ties with OFW host countries urged

migrant workers’ group wants the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) to focus on negotiations for bilateral labor agreements with countries hosting Filipino workers. Kanlungan Center, a group assisting distressed OFWs, is urging the POEA to do its responsibilities now that it has regained a broad mandate over the local migration industry under RA 9422, the law that strengthens its regulatory functions.

“RA 9422 has strengthened POEA’s role in protecting the rights of OFWs. One way to lessen abuses against our workers is to send them to countries that have labor agreements with the Philippines," said Rosemary Trajano, executive director of Kanlungan Center.

“The new law is a huge success for OFWs, and POEA must not fail them," Trajano said in an interview in a radio program hosted by Ma. Fe Nicodemus of Kakammpi, an organization of migrant workers and their families. According to Trajano, the Philippines has bilateral labor agreements with only 13 out of the 197 countries hosting OFWs. Twelve of those are labor-receiving countries and one (Indonesia) a labor sending country.

These countries are Norway, United Kingdom, Papua New Guinea, South Korea, Taiwan, Switzerland, Libya, Jordan, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands and Indonesia.

Trajano praised the POEA for its efforts in helping OFWs. In fact, she said, the Philippines has most advanced policies and laws on migration among Asian countries. On April 10, 2007, President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo signed Republic Act 9422, repealing Sections 29 and 30 of RA 8042, also known as Migrant Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995.RA 8042 mandated the secretary of the Department of Labor and Employment to phase out the regulatory functions of the POEA within five years from June 7, 1995.

Migrant workers’ rights advocates had lobbied for the repeal of Sections 29 and 30 that allowed private sectors to participate in the recruitment and deployment of migrant workers in an unregulated atmosphere. “The POEA shall continue to exercise its power to regulate private sector participation in the recruitment and overseas placement of workers by setting up a licensing and registration system," Administrator Rosalinda Dimapilis-Baldoz said in a statement after the signing of the new law.

“In order to ensure that the rights and welfare of the migrant workers will not be sacrificed in foreign lands, the POEA shall deploy only trained and competent Filipino workers to countries where the Philippines has concluded bilateral labor arrangements," she said. - Luis Gorgonio, GMANews.TV

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